For as long as I can remember, I've been a writer picking words like flowers and replanting them to their fullest potential. Words come naturally to everyone through conversation and simple written statements like texts or email, but they're rarely admired in a deeper level. Most of the people I've encountered in my life hold such a grudge when asked to lift a pencil in the classroom and write a paragraph or a whole essay for reasons that truly invested writers could never fathom. Writing is often seen as a chore, a complete and utter waste of time simply because its full potential isn't always apparent to those stirring up the ridicule. While it may not be apparent to everyone, there is a deeper meaning and purpose to writing than simply putting words down on paper that keeps an increasing amount of people coming back for more, and I promise you can find it if you just look hard enough.

My journey started as a small elementary school student in an after school program. I had always been a reader and constantly had a book glued to my hand, so something about diving into fictional characters' lives made me want to experiment with that myself. I used to scrounge around for every pristine piece of blank copy paper that I could, folding it in half when I did, so I could wave my creative wand and create my own stories like the ones I'd been reading. From here on it was rare to see me without a creative spurt and urge to create something with my limited vocabulary, and I even expanded my book-creating desires to making a class-wide newspaper that I somehow got my friends to do with me. It may not have seemed like much, but for an elementary school girl, it gave me all the satisfaction I could gather and I liked having that urge to create in my life.

High school came around and that urge died down a little bit more as my life was busier than it ever had been, but it never really left completely. I still loved writing and creating whatever utopia I could think up on my smooth pieces of notebook paper but my time was wholely consumed by endless hours of homework and studying that I didn't have time left for it, until I joined the school's creative writing class in my junior year. Starting that class rekindled my love for writing and the purpose it gave me in life and showed me a way to be more connected to the people and events in my life. My skills were deepened, my thoughts widened to realms I didn't know existed in my head. The relationship I had with words and writing improved from there and we formed an unbreakable bond that would take me to college and beyond.

Writing serves more of a purpose than practicing penmanship and improving vocabulary. Instead, it serves as a perfect creative outlet or method for self-expression that is needed in today's day and age. Creativity is being plucked out of so many people's lives as its lack of appreciation towers over the desire to experience it. However, creativity is more than simply finding a way to kill some time and instead provides creators with a feeling of purpose and worth in their lives, a realization of the beauty lingering within their souls. I felt this through my own experience as I developed a way to share things in my head that seemed "too good to be true", waves of pleasure and happiness flowing into my bones. Creativity has a way of transporting us to a reality that is often better than our own or simply an enhancement, and transport it did.

From my own experience, the power of written and verbal words carried me through the seemingly inescapable rough patches of life to a way to cope with it. Oftentimes this was either through creating my own poems or stories or through journaling. The method I chose depended on my emotions at the time - poems and stories for when I had mild emotions and journaling for when I had extreme emotions that I just had to let out like word vomit. Journaling overtime became my way of keeping a record of my memories, like a scrapbook but not, and a prime way to relax by writing and pasting in photos, stickers, and magazine clip outs that I liked. This way made it possible to share every moment and memory while increasing my creative potential.

Not only can my words be used for personal memory-keeping, but also for sharing insights and stresses with others throughout the world. Through writing, it is possible to raise awareness and shed light on certain topics. Writing allows us to join hands and empower the world one syllable at a time, finding new friends at the same time. More communities and groups are opened up as joy follows you down that path. Perhaps it's the versatility with putting a pen to paper that keeps me coming back for more and the satisfaction of coming up with a good line. Writing connects the world and everything in it and for that reason, I've chosen to keep that in my life forever.